A 2-minute recap of the just-announced Malaysia Budget 2023

The focus is on uplifting all segments of society, especially the B-40 group, M-40 group, women, youth, and persons with disabilities (OKUs).

Malaysia's Minister of Finance Tengku Zafrul Aziz has just concluded his Budget 2023 (Bajet 2023) delivery (Friday, 7 October 2022). 

A total of RM372.bn will be allocated under this Budget, with the focus on uplifting all segments of society, especially the B-40 group, M-40 group, women, youth, and persons with disabilities (OKUs).

Here's a quick, two-minute, non-comprehensive update on some of the announcements made:

• For nearly 1mn taxpayers, the Government has announced that the resident individual income tax rate will be reduced by two percentage points for the taxable income range between more than RM50,000 to RM100,000, namely:
  • First: For the taxable income range of more than RM50,000 to RM70,000, the rate will be lowered from 13% to 11%; and
  • Second: For the taxable income range of more than RM70,000 to RM100,000, the rate will be lowered from 21% to 19%.
    
    
• In order to further strengthen the role of women at the corporate leadership level, the Securities Commission will introduce a special training programme to improve women's skills, identify, and subsequently increase the number of women who are eligible to be appointed as board members.
  
  
• To encourage more women to return to work after taking a career break, the Government has proposed to exempt income tax on income received from the assessment year 2023 to the assessment year 2028.
  
  
• The government will continue the implementation of MySTEP by offering 50,000 career opportunities on a contract basis, including 15,000 in the public sector and 35,000 through GLCs. The public sector MySTEP service period will also be extended until December 31, 2023.
  
  
• Starting in 2023, the MySTEP salary will be increased by RM100, which is between RM1,500 to RM2,100, compared to RM1,400 to RM2,000.
  
  
• Tengku Zafrul also announced the allocation of RM150mn for the Employment Incentive under PERKESO. This will amount to RM600-RM750 per month, for a period of three months, for vulnerable groups.
  
  
• Starting from the assessment year 2023, the micro-SMEs (Perusahaan Mikro, Kecil dan Sederhana, or PMKS) tax rate on taxable income for the first RM100,000 will be reduced from 17% to 15%. This reduction is expected to save up to RM2,000 for 150,000 PMKS taxpayers.
  
  
• HRD Corp will provide a total of RM750mn to provide skills training to more than 800,000 workers to increase productivity and income opportunities.
  
  
• A salary increase of RM100 to all civil servants will be granted from grades 11 to 56, as a special supplement. This means, if a Grade 11 employee who is paid RM1,600 gets an annual salary increase of RM80 in April for the next year, they will also get the special addition of 100 ringgit starting in January 2023. This makes their final salary in 2023 as much as RM1,780 and this will remain carried over to the next year.

Photo / Kementerian Kewangan Malaysia's Budget 2023 Microsite